


where the wild things are

by lostariels



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Business Bitch Lena, F/F, First Meetings, Fluff, Meet-Cute, Zoo, Zookeeper Kara, tour guide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:01:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21888598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostariels/pseuds/lostariels
Summary: “Hi! Are you here for the tour?” she eagerly asked.Lena opened and closed her mouth, faltering for a moment as her eyebrows rose in surprise. “Um … yes?”“Great! Well, my name’s Kara,” the woman said, tugging at the nametag pinned to the right side of her shirt. The left had a stitched motif with the zoo’s name on it. “I’m one of the zookeepers here.”
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 25
Kudos: 1002





	where the wild things are

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NotThePendragonYouAreLookingFor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotThePendragonYouAreLookingFor/gifts).



Lena wasn’t sure what brought her to the zoo that day, but with nothing but time to waste until her business meeting that evening over dinner, and no desire to stay in her hotel room, she found herself on the baking sidewalks of National City, glowering behind her sunglasses as she walked through the concrete jungle.

Her regret was almost immediate as a wall of heat slammed into her, unbearable after the cooler climate of Metropolis that she was used to, but Lena was already a couple of blocks away from her hotel, and with nothing else to do, boredom propelled her onwards. Passing by barbershops and boutiques, coffee shops and pizza joints, bookshops and shoe stores, Lena ignored everything with an air of indifference, the sound of the city fading into a general murmur surrounding her, cut through with the occasional blaring of a car horn.

The car fumes and odour of the city in the sweltering heat made for a fetid smell, and Lena could envision it blanketing her clothes and clinging to her skin, already beading with sweat as the sun beat down on her. She stumbled upon the zoo almost by accident, seeing the glimpse of green in the distance, standing out amidst the grey skyscrapers and windows reflecting the blinding sunlight, and the thought of sitting in the shade of a tree in what looked like an ordinary park was welcome.

Crossing the street at the next intersection, Lena made her way towards the park with an air of relief, her pace quickening slightly as she moved through the crowded street, before coming to the gate of what was apparently not a park. She took one look at the sign reading  _ National City Zoo _ and breathed in the faint odour of manure and greasy food mingling with the dampness of the small forest packed into the middle of the city and thrust her credit card out to the young girl manning the ticket booth.

She was handed a paper ticket stub and a map of the zoo with all of the enclosures neatly labelled on one side, as well as a list of feeding times and tours on the back. Moving through the creaking turnstile, Lena stepped into the confines of the zoo, a shaded canopy of tree branches reaching for each other overhead, the distant sounds of twittering birds mingling with the soft sighs of rustling leaves. The air smelled of rich, loamy earth and stagnant water, and it felt heavy with humidity as she made her way through the gloomy tunnel of trees.

As she emerged from the walkway of gnarled trees, Lena spotted a low concrete building set off to the right had signs for food and drinks and Lena wandered towards it, taking in the round tables and chairs beneath the blue and white striped awning. It was mostly empty, given the fact that it was a Tuesday, occupied by a mother and a small child, a couple that looked to be on a date, eating ice cream in the cool interior as an AC machine rattled on the wall.

The air was frigid inside, making Lena’s skin ripple with goosebumps as sweat dried, and she suppressed a shiver as she walked over to the fridge and picked out an overpriced bottle of water. Fishing out her credit card again, she paid for it and chose an empty table outside, sitting in the shade and twisting the cap off to take a sip of water. With almost no desire to see any of the animals, Lena found herself unfurling the paper map and spreading it out on the table, out of interest more than anything.

She’d been to the zoo once before, as a child. Her father had taken her and her brother one Sunday afternoon, a rare day in December that he hadn’t been working. Her mother had insisted that she’d had a headache and didn’t accompany them, shutting herself in her dark bedroom instead. It had been a bitter winter’s day, and all the animals at Metropolis Zoo had been inside their shelters, sleeping off the snow day. It hadn’t been a particularly fun outing, and the only ones who looked like they were truly enjoying the weather were the penguins. It had been a quick visit.

Eyeing the labelled enclosures on the map before her, Lena slowly sipped her water and took in the selection of animals available to ogle at. Crocodiles and lions, giraffes and kangaroos. It had a wide selection, and she found herself considering taking a walk around on the off chance that there was something interesting to be seen. Taking another sip of water, she looked around, taking in the jungle of plant life contained behind low brick walls, branches and fronds reaching out over the concrete path disappearing further into the zoo. There was a gift shop across from the small café and she considered browsing the collections of stuffed animals and plastic figurines, passing the time in the cool, hushed store.

Feeling a little more rejuvenated from her sips of water, Lena folded her map up and shoved it into her back pocket, grabbing the plastic bottle and pushing the metal chair back with a grating sound along the paved ground that set her teeth on edge. In the distance, she heard the quiet trumping of an elephant and found herself restless to be walking. She spent too much of her time sitting behind a desk, and despite the warmth of the day, she didn’t want to wait for the hours to tick by sitting on a rickety patio chair inside the mouth of a zoo.

The logical course then was to actually walk around the zoo, and Lena felt the pull of the unseen animals as she glanced towards where the path curved, a thicket of trees and shrubs obscuring her view to what lay beyond. Shading her eyes, despite the dark sunglasses she wore, Lena’s brow puckered, and she hesitated for a moment, before glancing back to the gift shop.

She emerged five minutes later with a white t-shirt with an animal motif on the front and an emerald green cap with  _ National City Zoo  _ stitched across it. Checking the map for directions to the nearest bathroom, she slipped inside and shed her black starched shirt, pulling on the cheap shirt and tugging the cap down low over her face. Looking at her reflection in the spotted mirror above the cracked sink, Lena let out a snort of laughter as she took in the ridiculousness of it all, looking like a tourist. It occurred to her that technically that’s what she was.

With her shirt tied around her waist, Lena picked up her bottle of water and slipped back outside into the green-tinted sunlight, keeping to the dappled shade as she finally made her way along the concrete path that veered left and came out onto a round courtyard. A large statue of a roaring lion took up the middle of the courtyard, red tulips bursting from the flowerbed ringing the statue’s plinth, and Lena looked around for directions.

A lone woman was in the courtyard, sitting on the low wall surrounding the lion as she wolfed down a sandwich in the shade provided by the statue. At the sight of Lena, she perked up, scrambling off the wall as she brushed crumbs off her lap and crumpled a brown paper bag in her hand. Lena eyed the khaki shorts and shirt combo with scepticism, watching as the woman half-jogged towards her, giving her a bright smile. She had a pair of aviator sunglasses tucked into the v-neck of the buttoned shirt and a pair of glasses on her face, reflecting the sunlight.

“Hi! Are you here for the tour?” she eagerly asked. 

Lena opened and closed her mouth, faltering for a moment as her eyebrows rose in surprise. “Um … yes?”

“Great! Well, my name’s Kara,” the woman said, tugging at the nametag pinned to the right side of her shirt. The left had a stitched motif with the zoo’s name on it. “I’m one of the zookeepers here.”

She extended a hand, hurriedly retracted it and wiped it on her shorts, and then nervously laughed as she thrust it back out. Shifting her water bottle to her left hand, Lena slowly reached out and gave it a limp shake.

“Lena.”

“Pretty,” Kara smiled, her blue eyes crinkling at the corners as she scrunched her freckled nose. “Well, you’re a bit early, so we’ll wait and see if anyone else joins us. It’s probably going to be a small one; weekday ones usually are.”

Nodding, Lena crossed her arms over her chest and watched as the zookeeper aimed for a nearby trash can and tossed the crumpled paper bag in its direction, falling short by a few feet. Giving her a grim smile and shrugging helplessly, Kara laughed.

“I was never good at basketball.”

Giving her a blank look, there was a slight pause before Lena replied. “Okay.”

Scurrying off to pick up her trash, Kara walked over to the bin and tossed it in, before slowly strolling back towards Lena. She was tall, Lena noticed, a long stretch of her tanned legs exposed to the sunlight, and her hair shone like burnished gold. Kara couldn’t have been much older than her, a youthful softness to her features, giving her a gentle kindness. 

“So, what brings you here today? Tourist? Day off? Animal lover?”

Lena stared at her for a moment, her brow furrowing slightly before she curtly replied. “I’m on a business trip. Just trying to waste some time.”

“Then I’ll have to make it  _ worth _ your time,” Kara enthusiastically replied. “Anything you’re excited to see? What’s your favourite animal?”

Shrugging nonchalantly, Lena scrambled for an answer, and her mind strayed back towards those penguins that one winter in Metropolis. With a faint smile curling her lips, she quietly replied. “Penguins.”

“Oh,” Kara said, faltering for a moment as her expression dropped, “we don’t, uh, there aren’t any penguins here. National City’s, ah, not really their preferred climate. What about something that likes the heat? Lions? Elephants? Crocodiles?”

“Crocodiles are cool.”

Perking back up, Kara gave her a bright smile, standing with her hands clasped behind her back as she restlessly shifted from foot to foot with excitement. “I think so too! We’ve got a live feeding show for them. We’ve got two; Spike’s  _ huge _ .”

“Okay, great. Is that part of the tour?”

Eagerly nodding, Kara pushed her glasses up her nose as she smiled. “Mhm! It’ll take about two hours, and I’ll take you to all the scheduled performances at that time. You know, crocodile feeding, falconry, giraffe feeding. The elephant’s like to play soccer sometimes, so we’ll see how they’re feeling today.”

“So you just … you let the animals decide? You don’t … you know, force them?”

“Oh,  _ God _ no! I know there’s a big stigma around zoo’s, but we’re a good one here. It’s all about rehabilitation and conservation. We try and say away from animals that thrive in colder climates, for obvious reasons, and make sure they all have the space they need. There are a  _ lot _ of endangered species here and others that are on the critical list. But we’re doing our best to help! We just had the birth of our first White Rhino calf about six months ago via artificial insemination. The mother was brought to us after poachers took her horn; it’s sad, but it’s also good that we can give her a safe home. That goes for a lot of the animals here. I mean, especially with global warming and our impact on the environment- sorry, I’m probably boring you with this. I just get very passionate and it’s-”

“It’s nice,” Lena quietly assured her, a small smile curling her lips, “passion is nice.”

Kara’s cheeks turned slightly pink as she beamed at Lena, radiating delight as her nose scrunched up endearingly. Lena found her heart swell slightly, a rush of satisfaction flooding through her at the simple act of making someone else happy, and she felt buoyed by the lightness, some of the reserved, tediousness about her day at the zoo seeming to vanish with the act of a simple smile.

“It is, isn’t it!” Kara said, equal parts relieved and overjoyed by Lena’s agreement, “and conservation is  _ so _ important.”

“Mhm.”

“So, what’re you passionate about, Lena?”

Pausing for a moment, Lena bit her bottom lip as she thought, before giving Kara a small shrug and an apologetic smile, “I don’t know.”

“Well, what kind of work do you do?”

“I work in clean energy,” Lena admitted, gesturing vaguely with a hand, “you know, solar panels, wind turbines, hydropower.”

“Really?” Kara blinked in surprise.

At Lena’s curt nod, Kara’s face split into another wide smile, and she was almost brimming with excitement. 

“That’s amazing! Of course, that’s  _ also _ a big part of conservation - you know, making sure that we try and lower our carbon footprint.”

Mouth curving up on one side, Lena tilted her head and stared at her from behind her dark sunglasses, watching as Kara babbled on with eagerness. “Right. There’s only one planet.”

“Exactly! And it’s so- oh, hello! Are you here for the tour?”

Kara trailed off as the mother and child that Lena had seen in the café, the child’s face covered in melted ice cream as he was pushed along in the stroller. Lena stood off to the side as Kara exchanged a few pleasant comments with the woman, and she observed the zookeeper with renewed interest, taking in the tanned, golden skin, the confidence that she spoke with, even as she blushed and smiled sheepishly at her weak jokes. To Lena, she had the clumsy air of a newborn fawn, scrambling over herself, mouth seeming to race ahead of her brain. 

They all lingered in the harsh sunshine, soon joined by a middle-aged couple wearing matching Hawaiian shirts with cameras around their necks. Tourists. As the clock hit ten, Kara glanced down at her watch and then smiled at them all, exchanging her glasses for the pair of aviators, before she herded them all towards the opposite entrance they’d come in through, taking the path into the zoo proper. 

Content to linger at the back of their small entourage, Lena ambled along behind the mother pushing her son along and listened to Kara’s bright chit-chat as she first led them towards the reptiles. There, she launched into a spiel about a variety of snakes and lizards, turtles and tortoises, and then onto the crocodiles. Spike was as big as Lena had envisioned, watching with a flicker of wariness and a rigid tension to her shoulders as Kara climbed up a short ladder and stood on a platform with another zookeeper, hauling a carcass up for the massive crocodile, which launched itself up out of the water to snap it from the curved hook it dangled from.

Then it was onwards to the jungle animals, and Lena somehow found herself walking beside Kara, the old couple and the mother and son both talking amongst themselves, leaving Lena and the zookeeper to make their own couple. Strolling along, looking like she was on a safari or some wilderness adventuring, Kara quizzed Lena about her company and gushed about her work at the zoo, a seemingly inexhaustive topic of conversation that Lena shockingly didn’t mind. It caught her by mild surprise, and Lena found herself comfortable in the presence of the other woman, enjoying the warmth that spread through her at the gentle rumble of Kara’s voice. 

Lena liked it as she spouted facts about the pride of lions in a sprawling enclosure, basking in the sunlight and dozing in a docile heap. She liked the way Kara laughed with unabashed joy as she let herself into the elephant enclosure with a soccer ball and one of the elephant’s nudged her with its trunk, before stealing the ball from her hands. The way her face lit up at the chimpanzee enclosure as one of them raced towards the glass windows separating them, and how she crouched to place her hand against the flat glass, mirroring the monkey.

In a way, Kara felt like one of the animals to gaze and marvel at, to watch in her element as she led the tour, her love for her job evident in the passionate way she lectured them on different species, her face lighting up with so much joy that Lena found her stomach clenching and her mouth going dry. Her bottle of water was long finished before the end of the tour, leaving her with an unquenchable thirst that only seemed to grow worse whenever Kara smiled at her, as if her whole throat was closing up.

Eventually, they’d exhausted all the exhibits, walking until Lena’s boots had given her blisters and her head was full with more facts about pandas, hippos and koalas than she cared to admit, having listened to Kara with rapt attention. Their guide led them back to the circular courtyard they’d started in, having taken a long and circuitous way around the zoo, and Lena humoured the couple by taking a photo of them with Kara on their bulky camera. And then it was just her and Kara, even though Lena wasn’t quite sure why she hadn’t left yet.

“So, which one was your favourite?” Kara asked as she rounded on her, switching out the aviators for her glasses again, revealing her cerulean eyes to Lena.

“Oh, um, I thought it was all great,” Lena slowly replied, caught off guard by the question. “I think … the elephants were fun.”

With a short laugh and a lopsided smile, Kara rubbed the back of her neck, “yeah, they’re a bunch of goofballs. My girlfriend loves them too.”

At the same moment Lena’s stomach inexplicably plummeted, Kara’s face lit up as her whole body perked up, brimming with excitement at the sudden idea that struck her.

“Oh! I didn’t introduce you to my girlfriend, Hope!” she laughed, clapping a hand to her forehead, “you should meet her! She’s amazing, and I know she’ll just  _ love _ you.”

“Oh, I sh-”

“I think she’s …” Kara mumbled to herself as she glanced down at her watch, before looking up at Lena, “she’ll be at the cheetah enclosure at this time. I need to go and grab her for lunch anyway.”

Mouth opening and closing as she struggled to come up with an excuse to worm her way out of it, with the uncomfortable feeling of embarrassment making her shift uneasily, she found herself being towed along by the eager zookeeper.

Taking a shorter path through the warren of pathways, the air reeking of animals, manure, baking stone and petrichor from the freshly watered plants, they soon stumbled upon the enclosure that Lena had been an observer of only an hour before. The cheetahs were dozing, just as they had been then, ears twitching as flies buzzed around. There were four cubs and two grown females, all piled in a heap of golden fur, and at Kara’s sharp whistle, their eyes opened.

At the sound of the whistle, another head popped up from amidst the pile, and Lena’s brow crumpled with bewilderment as she took in the out of place Golden Retriever that pushed itself to its feet and bounded towards the fence with a lolling tongue and tail wagging a mile a minute. Kara unlocked the door to the small building adjoining the enclosure, gesturing for Lena to come inside, before she shut it behind her, and then opened the door to the adjoining small ante-chamber to the enclosure. 

The dog was sitting at the door, shifting restlessly with excitement, and Lena watched as she unlocked that door too, trying to keep the animated dog at bay as she shut the gate behind it so that the cheetahs couldn’t get out. And then Lena watched as Kara dropped to her knees and ruffled the fluffy, golden fur and let the dog lick her face as she laughed.

“This is Hope,” Kara said as she looked up at Lena, her arms thrown around the dog.

“The dog,” Lena numbly replied, “your girlfriend is … the dog?”

With a chuckle, Kara gave her a lopsided smile as she shrugged, “yeah, we’re obsessed with each other. She’s my main girl.”

Pausing for a moment, Lena opened her mouth, before cutting herself off again, planting her hands on her hips as she cocked her head to the side, watching Kara stroke the dog’s fur and croon over her. 

“So, you don’t have a- a girlfriend. Like a human one?”

Snorting with laughter, Kara shook her head. “Luckily, no. Or- well, I mean … I’m  _ hoping _ that’s a good thing, because I was going to ask if you’d like to get dinner while you’re in town.”

“Dinner?” Lena slowly replied.

“Yeah!” Kara beamed at her, “I mean, I’m not really sure if I’m doing this properly. I’m kind of married to my work, so I don’t really date much - hence the dog girlfriend - but I just- I know I’ve only known you for two hours, but I want to know more. You’re fascinating. All of these animals in here, and you’re the one I understand the least, but I … I have the sense that you’re special. So, I’d like to take you out to dinner - if you want to, of course.”

Blinking in surprise, Lena faltered for a moment, “I leave tomorrow.”

“Oh.”

“Are you free tonight?” she found herself asking, already mentally cancelling her business plans.

A small smile curled Kara’s mouth as her eyes crinkled at the corner and her cheek was slobbered on by the dog, yet Lena still felt her heart stumble slightly at the endearing sight.

“It’s a date.”

**Author's Note:**

> just a little fun fact for you: this is essentially how steve irwin met his wife, dog girlfriend and all


End file.
